https://jslhr.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=1780789Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL) of Words by School-Age Children With and Without SLIThis study examined Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL) of novel vocabulary by two groups of school-age children, those who were developing language normally and those who demonstrated a specific language impairment (SLI). The experimental items consisted of 20 words that referred to one of four semantic classes: object, attribute, action, and ...1995-04-01T00:00:00Research ArticleJanna B. Oetting

Research Article | April 01, 1995

Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL) of Words by School-Age Children With and Without SLI

This study examined Quick Incidental Learning (QUIL) of novel vocabulary by two groups of school-age children, those who were developing language normally and those who demonstrated a specific language impairment (SLI). The experimental items consisted of 20 words that referred to one of four semantic classes: object, attribute, action, and affective state. Videotaped stories were used to introduce the novel words, and word learning was measured by a picture-pointing task. For the normally developing children, the results documented a robust ability to learn words in the early school years. Comprehension gains were observed for all four word types, with the greatest gain made on the object labels. The children with SLI also demonstrated some word-learning ability, but their gain was significantly less than that of their normally developing peers. Although the general pattern of word effects was similar across the two groups, the children with SLI demonstrated a particularly low gain on words from the action class.

Acknowledgments

Data collection was completed while the first author was a U.S. Department of Education Trainee #H029090046–90. Funding was also provided by a NIDCD First Award, #1R01 NS26129, awarded to the second author. Appreciation is extended to Annie Herndon for assistance in data collection, Janice Horohov for assistance in preparation of the manuscript, and the children, teachers, and parents of the U.S.D. 308 public school system, whose cooperation made this study possible.

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